A Christmas Birth

It was Christmas morning. The excitement of the three children, ages 5, 4 and 2 was indescribable. Yes, they could now open their presents. Within minutes they were oohing and awing as they unwrapped toys and clothes and even some gifts of money.

Their mother fixed breakfast and I succeeded in getting them seated at the table. The kids played with their toys after breakfast, the dishes were washed, the turkey was put in the oven and I sat down to watch them play. In a little while Andy crawled up into my lap, gave me a hug and sat there. He knew very little English and I knew no Korean. I wondered what he was thinking at this first Christmas with us.

At the children's Christmas program the evening before I had heard again the words from Isaiah, "unto us a child is given." I didn't hear anything else. I was thinking that at Christmas the year before we had not even thought or dreamed of adopting a child. In June we heard of the possibility of adopting a Korean-American child from an orphanage in Korea through the Methodist Church. We talked about it. We submitted an application. We were interviewed. We sent the first installment of money and then we waited.

One day a letter informed us that a five year old boy was adopted by us by proxy in Korea and would arrive December 5 in Minneapolis. That would be the next day. What a rush! What excitement! Then there he was. The flight attendant told us the boy didn't know any English. He had not eaten breakfast. We signed the papers and led him off the airplane into a different world for both him and us.

Andy was a happy, playful, energy-filled boy who was excited about everything in his new life. He accepted our love and gave love to each one of us. On Christmas morning as I held him on my lap, I thanked God for this Christmas day, for the gift of the Christ Child and also for the gift of Andy. What a wonderful loving gift.

Prayer: Thank you, God, for making such loving gifts possible and for giving your only son, Jesus, as a gift to us. Amen.

-- Ron Hartung